New York Times (June 11)
“Mr. Trump’s recklessness in retaining and showing off military secrets is both arrogant and breathtaking. It put the lives of American soldiers at risk. These are some of the United States’ most closely guarded secrets — so sensitive that many top national-security officials can’t see them — and Mr. Trump treated them like a prize he had won at a carnival. These actions underscore, yet again, why he is unfit for public office.”
Tags: Arrogant, Breathtaking, Carnival, Military secrets, National security, Recklessness, Risk, Secrets, Soldiers, Trump, U.S., Unfit
The Economist (June 16)
“India and China have their first deadly clashes in 45 years.” Although “artillery and tanks” stayed quiet, front-line soldiers engaged wielding “only sticks and stones.” When “the final rocks had been thrown, at least 20 Indian troops lay dead….Chinese casualties are unknown.” The hostilities are “a sign of worrying military escalation between Asia’s giants.”
Tags: Artillery, Casualties, China, Clashes, Escalation, Front-line, Hostilities, India, Soldiers, Sticks, Stones, Tanks
The Economist (July 23)
Since the coup in Turkey, two things have become clear. “First, the people of Turkey showed great bravery in coming out onto the streets to confront the soldiers; hundreds died…. Opposition parties, no matter how much they may despise President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, united to denounce the assault on democracy. Better the flawed, Islamist-tinged strongman than the return of the generals for the fifth time since the 1960s. The second, more alarming conclusion is that Mr Erdogan is fast destroying the very democracy that the people defended with their lives.”
USA Today (May 25)
President Obama is right to visit Hiroshima and also not to apologize. “The bombings, as horrific as they were, saved the lives of millions of civilians and soldiers who surely would have died had the United States gone ahead with an invasion of Japan. Many of those lives were Japanese.” Instead Obama “should present an America that, while not apologetic, is empathetic. There is something appealing about the world’s only true superpower…showing a bit of humanity.”
Tags: Bombings, Civilians, Empathetic, Hiroshima, Horrific, Humanity, Invasion, Japan, Obama, Soldiers, Superpower, U.S.
New York Times (March 19)
Will Crimean exuberance over a Russian homecoming soon turn to disappointment? History suggests as much. When South Ossetia was liberated from Georgia in 2008 “people were delighted to see the Russian soldiers…. But within a few months of Russia’s recognition, shivering through the winter behind windows made of plastic sheeting, people began to wonder when the billions of rubles of aid pledged by Russia would reach them.”
Tags: Aid, Crimea, Disappointment, Exuberance, Georgia, Rubles, Russia, Soldiers, South Ossetia
